Staying calm and healthy in a pandemic

How are you doing staying home and staying healthy during this pandemic? If you’re a health care worker, or a grocery store worker, or a mail carrier, or you work for a delivery service, THANK YOU. You are our front line workers. I for one am extremely grateful for your dedication and service.

Let yourself regroup

I took a week off from blogging last week because I needed to regroup and settle into the new routine of normal. I figured out that my extreme tiredness is due to my system processing the intense fear that’s surfacing globally. I found myself crying for about two hours in the closet with Sam one night. I realized most of my tears weren’t MY trauma I was crying for, but it was the collective grief and fear that needed an outlet and I was one of the ones letting it move through me. I am grateful I’ve learned to cry and allow the emotions to move through me instead of getting stuck in my physical body. After the tears, I felt calm and connected. Even blessed.

Self Love

In Chinese medicine, the lungs are the organ connected to the emotion of grief. Perhaps the Earth is calling us to process our grief. One of the wise teachers I follow, Sally Kempton, did an evening virtual telecast meditation that I attended last week. You can listen to it yourself right here. She invited us to view this time as an opportunity to learn and remember how to deeply love ourselves. And to tap into the realization that God and the Universe have much love for us. This resonates with me. I am working to slow down, to remind myself to exercise at least an hour every day and to be extra kind to myself.

Cooking for calm and wellness

One of the things I do on a regular basis that helps me stay grounded and centered in wellness is cook. Last Sunday I cooked a yummy version of rice and beans! It took very little time and I shared it with my housemate. It’s from the Minimalist Baker website and is called Black Bean Buddha Bowl with Gingery Lemon Tahini. We both loved it! If you give it a try, let me know what you think.

Sausage, Cabbage, Root Veggies Soup w/Beyond Meat Sausage!

Another yummy dish I made was super simple, yes, I am a BIG FAN of simple!! It was Sausage, Cabbage and Root Vegetable Soup from the EatingWell website. I didn’t use meat sausage, but instead I used vegan sausage I got from the coop. Again, if you give this one a try, please let me know how you like it!

Stocking your pantry in a pandemic

In case you’re worried about what to stock for a two week period, here’s a great article about how to stock a pandemic pantry! This gave me some great ideas, healthy foods galore!! May it serve you well too.

More Fire Cider

The other thing I did cooking-wise, was make another batch of Fire Cider. The key ingredients of Fire Cider: horseradish, ginger, onion, garlic, and lemon, are super good immune supporting items. I am almost done with my last batch and given that we might be staying home for a while longer, I wanted to have more Fire Cider. Once again, here’s the recipe I use.

Fire Cider makes me smile!

New Fire Cider for wellness!

Friendships in times of social distancing

The other thing I’m doing to stay centered and calm, both good for maintaining a strong immune system, is I have regular phone calls with friends. My friend Tammy and I talk every other day. My longest friend, Ara, and I talk every two to three days. Linda and I are committed to talking at minimum once a month. Plus, I meet with my writing group friends at least once a month. In fact, I wrote this blog while doing our writing group using Zoom. The key is connection in this time of social distancing. How about you, are you staying connected? Please let me know if you need some connection.

“The coronavirus is helping us realize who we are relative to each other—one human family—thereby inspiring us to come together as one. This is the gift concealed within the disease that not only helps us to heal the disease, but heals us as well.” Paul Levy, from his recent blog post the Coronavirus contains its own medicine.

Medical Disclaimer

I’m Mari and I’m an amateur endurance athlete who has had type 1 diabetes for almost 40 years. I’ve survived breast cancer twice. I am not a medical professional nor am I giving medical advice.

I’ve worked closely with athletic coaches, diabetes experts, cancer experts, and many sports nutrition experts. Plus I have hundreds of friends who are athletes first and people who live with diabetes, cancer or other major health challenges, second.

Along the way, I’ve picked up a few hot tips that I share for inspiration in figuring out the athletic and wellness puzzle. I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota with my three bikes, my many pairs of running shoes, my swim goggles, my love of cooking healthy food every week and my very athletic rescue dog Sam!